Discussion: Revising History

The song that helped me warm up to Carrie Underwood was “Before He Cheats.” While I believe the song is simply a good song no matter who sings it, Underwood’s performance is perfect. She delivers the lyrics with just enough sass and personality to provide the famous jilted lover’s anthem the grit that it needs in order to be believable.

Now, please keep my high praise of Underwood‘s performance in mind as you read my next admission. Lately, whenever “Before He Cheats” comes up on my shuffle, I can’t help but think that the song would have been an even more perfect fit for Miranda Lambert. My reasons for putting the two (the song and Lambert) together are pretty obvious. Attitude is what drives the song and Lambert has proven to be the ideal purveyor of songs with attitude. Then again, I’m sure the Crazy Ex Girlfriend connection is a factor as well.

So, my question to you is this:

If you could revise history, what songs do you hear that you imagine other artists recording as well or even better than the original artist?

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33 Comments

Funny you say that Leeann. I actually want to know how she would sound singing it as well.

Personally, I think Carrie would’ve blown “Stay” out of the water. It’s a fantastic song and I think Carrie’s vocals on it could prove to everyone how emotionally involved and vocally superior she really is.

never thought of Carrrie singing stay but that probably would be a good fit after hearing what she could do with Randy Travis’s I Told You So
she kills that one. I would be curious to hear ML do BHC, or Gretchen Wilson.

I have also always been curious to here someone like Blake Shelton take on a George Strait tune. It would probably sound horrible, but I would have love to see what Blake could have done with You’ll Be There or Wrapped. Someone in a neo-traditional world tackling a solid country hit style like George’s.

I always thought Carrie was miscast for “Before He Cheats” (the video at least, if not the song itself)..I agree that is more of a Miranda type song, I think Jo Dee Messina would have been a credible choice as well.

I believe Trisha Yearwood was pitched “Strawberry Wine” and declined. I imagine a number of the ’90s ladies would’ve loved that song, but Deana Carter’s voice worked perfectly with it.

I’d be the first to say Gretchen Wilson has more artistic ability than is often reported, and I enjoy her ballads for the most part, but I’d like to see Lee Ann Womack or Patty Loveless tackle her “I Don’t Feel Like Loving You Today”, another Matraca Berg gem.

I’m gonna flip Scott’s choice and say I’d like to have heard Cash sing “Long Black Train.” Apparently he considered recording it shortly before he died, but decided he had done too many train songs already.

I always wondered about if Gary Allan did Whiskey Lullaby as a solo song. His deep voice and his way of extracting emotion with every note, might have put even more emotion and power into an already powerful song.

I also remember reading that Reba had passed on Independence Day. Don’t get me wrong, I think that song was written specifically for Martina, but I always wonder how Reba would have handled such a sensitive yet powerful song.

And another song, was Miranda Lambert doing the grittiness of the classic Reba (and Ms. Gentry) song “Fancy”. Miranda has enough grit in her to pull it off as well. Although, I don’t know if she’d be able to match Reba’s near flawless interpretation.

any Reba song that requires a killer vocal (ie: “Whoever’s In New England” and”You Lie”) by Carrie Underwood

“She Thinks His Name was John” by Trisha Yearwood or Alison Krauss

and I really love this song by Reba but it’d be interesting to see the following artists’ take on “Somebody” :
-Sara Evans
-Faith Hill
-Trisha Yearwood
-Alison Krauss
-Lee Ann Womack
-LeAnn Rimes
-Wynonna!!
-Dixie Chicks

yes Greg, I too have wondered how Reba would have done “Independence Day,” seeing as how she did “She thinks his name was john”
and I also agree that it’d be hard to match Reba in doing ‘Fancy’ but Lambert would be a good choice for that song ^^

Actually Carrie does a great job with any song she sings look at “Flat on the Floor” she can sing serious, sassy and everything in between but youre right Miranda is more the wild one (in a song sense) and I think Carrie would do great with Mirandas new song “More like Her” IMO

I love Jon Randalls version of ‘Whiskey Lullaby’. I love that he continues the metaphor instead of changing the line ‘and finally drank away her memory’ and sang it ‘and finally blew away her memory’. Just my opinion.